Response to interpellation 2022/23:195 on quality and development in the social services' operations
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
I believe that knowledge and competence are crucial for the social services' support and assistance 1. I emphasize that the government's mandate to Forte contributes to a strengthened knowledge base and a better connection between practice and research 1 2. I believe that the new Social Services Act should clarify the requirement for activities in accordance with science and proven experience 1 2. I believe that the distribution of responsibility between MFoF and Socialstyrelsen is expedient 1. I believe that crime prevention work is a prioritized issue 2. I believe that a new investigation is required for a social services data register 3. I emphasize that the social worker education must meet the needs and that additional competence is needed 3. I believe that the government focuses on genuine work 4.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! Martina Johansson has asked me what initiatives I am prepared to take to strengthen research on work methods and methods within the area of social services. Martina Johansson has also asked me what measures I will take to ensure that uniform and evidence-based methods are implemented throughout the country and when a proposal for a new Social Services Act will be submitted to the Riksdag. Furthermore, Martina Johansson has asked me if I intend to advocate for better opportunities to save individual data within social services for the purpose of facilitating research on the effects of, for example, early interventions. Finally, Martina Johansson has asked me if I consider the existing division between the National Board of Health and Welfare and the Agency for Family Law and Parenting Support, MFoF, to be expedient regarding quality and development in the social services' activities and, if that is not the case, if I intend to take initiative for any change.
It is important with knowledge and competence so that the social services, in every encounter with the individual, can provide support and help based on the best available knowledge. Research within the social services' field is an important part of the palette of interventions that the government has decided on and which are needed to be able to reach there.
In this context, I would therefore like to highlight the government's mandate to the Research Council for Health, Work Life and Welfare, Forte, to allocate funds to practice-oriented research focusing on the social services' areas of operation within the framework of the ten-year national research program on applied welfare research. The results from the research program are expected to contribute to a broadened and strengthened knowledge base as well as a stronger connection between practice and research within the social services' area.
The report Framtidens socialtjänst (S 2017:03) Hållbar socialtjänst - en ny socialtjänstlag (SOU 2020:47) is currently being prepared within the Government Offices. In the report, the commission submits, among other things, a proposal that a requirement shall be introduced in the Social Services Act that activities within social services shall be conducted in accordance with science and proven experience. Knowledge of which interventions actually have an effect is fundamental for a knowledge-based social service and for achieving good results.
In the preparatory works, a proposal is also submitted for a new law on social services data registers that would give Socialstyrelsen the possibility to process personal data in order to produce statistics. The purpose is to create conditions for monitoring not only interventions but also the results of interventions and methods. At the current time, it is not possible to specify more precisely when a bill on the issue can be submitted to the Riksdag.
The government has taken several measures to strengthen quality development and the possibility of implementing evidence-based methods on a broad front. The Swedish Council on Health Technology Assessment, SBU, has, for example, been tasked with educating and disseminating knowledge about scientific knowledge syntheses to strategically important groups within social services.
SBU has also been tasked with compiling knowledge on methods and interventions used within the social sector to prevent or deter continued youth crime. Within the framework of the assignment, SBU shall investigate which interventions are effective to both prevent children and young people from joining criminal gangs and gang-related crime, and to reduce or cause gang crime to cease. The investigation focuses on psychosocial interventions that can be carried out by social services, schools, leisure activities, or civil society and provided to children and young people under 30 years of age.
Socialstyrelsen has a mandate to support primary providers and professionals within social, child and youth care through measures to promote competence and stability as well as quality development within the area. Within the framework of the mandate, Socialstyrelsen shall take measures to strengthen cooperation between social services, the police and other relevant actors within crime prevention work. Socialstyrelsen shall also, through outward-facing activities, disseminate current knowledge on methods, work methods and good examples to municipalities and other relevant actors.
MFoF has overall responsibility for issues that were previously divided among several agencies. Gathering those issues in one and the same agency provides a better holistic view and increased focus on these important issues, as well as a more efficient and purposeful organization. I see no reason to consider any change when it comes to the distribution of responsibility between MFoF and Socialstyrelsen.
Martina Johansson (C)
Madam Speaker! Thank you for the answer, Camilla Waltersson Grönvall!
I had asked many questions at once. I do not feel completely reassured by the answer. Perhaps one should not do that in this situation either. I feel a bit insecure. There is too little focus on early interventions, on small children and their families.
I asked for research. Forte has a mandate to work with practice-oriented research so that it will be as good as possible in the long run. But I cannot really see that anything new has come from the government in that area. I also cannot see how the government intends for this to be implemented in everyday life and in operations, including in the social services. I also wonder if there are thoughts on giving the university, Socialstyrelsen, MFoF, or some other central authority a mandate to work with cooperation to increase research even further and achieve better implementation of the research that is being done.
SBU has already previously identified that there are many knowledge gaps. It is good that we know they exist so that we can fill them.
Regarding the assignment on which interventions actually yield results, I have not found the report that is to be made on the interventions that yield results. It is possible that the minister has received it. The question is again: How do we know that it will be used in everyday life?
It is strategic groups that are to receive that knowledge. I am wondering who they are. I actually do not know. I might be able to get an answer to that. Is it those who work within social services, who are within the justice system, who receive that task in order to ensure that the right decision is made?
Socialstyrelsen has a mandate to spread knowledge and methods. But what we have seen from the government so far has been about working with crime prevention. For me, it is not only about children and young people who have grown a bit older and ended up in crime for various reasons. It is actually about the small children who are in families that need support from the beginning.
The Children's Ombudsman has pointed out that small children who need support for various reasons are not being detected. That is what we need to work on. No children are born criminals. Small children are not criminals. We must find the early interventions. Better clarity is needed from a national level. Which methods should be used within social services? Which risk and protective factors do we work with, so that we ensure there are the right reasons behind and the right interventions for the children?
I can take an example. Right now, a method is being spread for how to talk to very small children with the help of pictures. It is a picture system that, as I understand it, has no research behind it. They are not gender-neutral pictures or neutral pictures in terms of skin color or disabilities. It creates uncertainty regarding how we meet children and how children's participation can be taken into account.
It is important to have both things at the same time, the early interventions and the preventive work for the slightly older youths. I hope that the government manages to have both things in mind at the same time, both early interventions for families when the children are small and interventions to prevent the slightly older youths from ending up in crime.
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Member Martina Johansson, for the questions and a very important debate on the social services' important function!
One of the government's absolute highest priorities is to work so that children will have better conditions in the future. This concerns both crime prevention work and preventive work. We find ourselves, as the member well knows, in a very serious situation with escalating gang crime. We receive reports that children as young as eight years old are being recruited into gang crime. I have said ten until now, but now there is information about children as young as eight years old. This really puts the focus on the fact that we must work with young children. Then we must start significantly earlier than when children are eight years old.
I have been a teacher for quite many years and know the importance of working across different boundaries. Therefore, one of the important issues that the government is working on is to provide the conditions for different parts of our society to work inclusively around the individual child. There, for example, the issue of confidentiality is important. I see that not only school and social services but also the police and health and medical care are important parts of this.
My vision for a future social service is about a social service that shall be the hub. It is important that the right knowledge and competence exist so that the social service, in every meeting with every individual person, can provide support and help that is also based on the best available knowledge. Therefore, research within the social service area, just as the member points out, is an important part in being able to achieve that.
Not least, practice-oriented research is an important part of being able to contribute to change and a better life for other people. In this regard, Fortes ten-year national research program, which involves applied welfare research focused on the area of social services and with a focus on precisely practice-oriented research, is an important example. Recently, a mid-term evaluation of the program was conducted. It shows that the program contributes to a large extent to knowledge building within the area and that one of the program's greatest added values is its practice-oriented focus, which also increases the conditions for the social services' activities to adopt and use the research results. The knowledge that the program contributes is judged to be able to lead to significant changes within just the social services.
As the member mentions and as I answered in my first post, we are working on the report for a new Social Services Act. The objective is to be able to submit the referral to the Council of Legislation during 2024 and thereafter, with the response one usually receives from the Council of Legislation, be able to use it in a future government bill.
Right now, the preparation of the report is underway. It arrived in 2020 and was requested. This government cannot be blamed for the delay. We would have wished that things had happened much earlier and that more had been done by a previous government.
It is an important part of the Social Services Act that social services are conducted in accordance with science and proven experience. This shall be clarified in upcoming legislation.
Martina Johansson (C)
Madam Speaker! Thank you again, Camilla Waltersson Grönvall! There are many parts that are important to consider. Part of the research points out how difficult it can be for the social services to be both controlling and supportive. According to today's debate and the proposals that are presented, among others, it will inevitably have to continue to be so. The social services shall both control and support the children, young people, and families who need it. This can, however, reduce the conditions for good cooperation, and it is important to keep in mind in the work so that such things do not arise. There are, as mentioned, researchers who are somewhat skeptical about having the dual role.
Many of us are waiting for the new Social Services Act. It contains a good deal of good proposals. But I think that 2024 is very far away, because there is an urgency now. If this had been as high on the government's priority list as the minister says, I would probably have expected more speed in the work of submitting the referral to the Council on Legislation and then proceeding with it. It is urgent! Clear measures are needed.
With every passing month, momentum is lost and more children and young people risk being harmed. I believe that the minister and I agree that all children and young people shall be judged equally. Girls shall not be blamed for their sexual behavior, and one should not expect boys to behave in a certain way that creates crime. But so that this does not happen, I return to the question of how this is implemented in everyday life. Research already exists today. One could be clearer.
I usually nag about my children's conversations. There are methods, but one must ensure that they are used - such as within the police where there is a special training so that one can conduct these conversations.
Another proposal from the government is to look at the social worker education. What I have seen concerns the social services being able to meet criminals and that it should be included in the social worker education. But it is much more that needs to be reviewed, for example how one can work with clearer educational paths within the social services and also further education so that one gets social service workers who are good at different things, because it is such a large and difficult area.
There is a national healthcare competence council, and there are perhaps things to learn there regarding social services. There is a cooperation between healthcare, educational institutions, regions, and authorities on how the profession should work with methods and what education is needed. It is only then that one can achieve a uniformity in the country that can then be followed up to see which interventions yield results. This applies to both small children and slightly older youths.
The question is when the government will look at the social worker education. Is it possible to have the Social Services Act enter into force earlier than 2024, which I think is a bit too far off? Are the early interventions within social services really high-priority?
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank the member for the contribution.
The last time I checked the calendar, 2024 is actually next year. When one takes office as a government, it is naturally completely crucial how much previous governments have worked on a report, for example this one that arrived in 2020. I also want to add that the investigator who worked on the report had received the directive that it must not be cost-driving. That affected, for example, the very important issues regarding follow-up of measures taken and evaluation of whether they have an effect. Such possibilities are lacking today in the welfare state Sweden.
The social services data register, which was intended to enable both the municipalities and the National Board of Health and Welfare to summarize and create statistics that can be learned from—it does not exist. This means that there is no other possibility than to appoint an inquiry that extracts this. I am convinced that the member understands the complexity of that kind of data legislation. It simply requires a new inquiry.
I have, however, said that we cannot wait for such an investigation. We need to work to ensure that the legislation is in place when it comes to the Social Services Act, because it is needed sooner. Otherwise, there is a risk that it will take a few more years. I therefore do not share the member's view that this is not a top priority, because it is.
I can also say that in my discussions with those who will be directly affected by the law, for example organizations and trade unions such as SSR, SKR, Kommunal and not least Sveriges socialchefer, I hear that they are impatient - just like the government and I. But they see and understand why we must use 2023 to get the preparatory work in place, and that is because it has not been done to a sufficient extent previously. We are therefore not losing momentum - on the contrary. We have moved at maximum speed when it comes to this issue.
The social work education and its changes unfortunately do not lie within my ministerial portfolio. It is Mats Persson who is responsible for higher education. But I can say, as I have also done previously, that it is incredibly important that such an education meets the needs of the people who are to work with these important tasks.
I devote as much of my time as I can right now to traveling around Sweden and visiting various social services. I hope that those responsible for the social worker education will listen and hear the same things as I do, namely that additional competence is needed. It is not just specifically about crime prevention, but about a lack of competence regarding performing some of the very complicated investigations that newly graduated individuals are often tasked to do. This means that the municipalities have a large and important job to do when it comes to the working environment out at the social services. Naturally, the government should be as helpful as possible there. It is also part of the conversations I have with the aforementioned organizations.
Martina Johansson (C)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister! I am pleased, as both the Minister and I have a great commitment to these issues. It is heard – and it is also the reason why I am becoming impatient. One can always reflect on what should be done first and not, but my experience when I look at the government's work from the outside is that more focus is placed on developing various proposals on increased penalties and reprisals than on working with the questions surrounding previous measures for and support for small children and families.
Even though the social worker education is not in the Minister's portfolio, it is part of the government's work to achieve what we all want: that no children should be put at risk. No child should have to be put at risk. No child who needs to be taken into care should risk not being so, and children who do not need to be taken into care should also not be taken into care. I will therefore continue to be impatient and think that 2024 is a long way off when it comes to the new Social Services Act.
I have another reflection. I have been inside on that but have not asked any direct question. Is the minister prepared to ask central authorities to point out which methods should be used? Even if there has not been data for everything and even if there are knowledge gaps, there is some research on different methods that are known to work and that can be used.
Is the Minister prepared to give the authorities the mandate to point out which methods we should use in Sweden, since we know that they work? It must not be as it is today, where a number of methods are listed on SKR's website and it states that they are used, even though one cannot ensure what evidence and research exists behind them.
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank Martina Johansson for an important and engaging debate.
There is no doubt that the member and the government share a common commitment to ensuring that all children in Sweden receive a better upbringing and a positive future. This is also an important part of the Tidö Agreement, which contains no fewer than 22 points on preventive work.
It obviously looks a bit different in different ministerial portfolios, and we have different focuses in our work. But if you look at the government's collective work, you see that very much in the Government Offices right now is about preventive measures. There is also an intensive work ongoing between the different departments to ensure that there is coherent legislation and that there are no gaps anywhere. This is extremely important.
It is therefore more important to do genuine work than to bring home some potential cheap points during a few months. The proposals that we then present in the chamber must hold up and be workable. This is the focus of what the government is doing right now. They must not become empty, contentless propositions that do not lead to any improvement or change in Sweden. The situation is far too serious for that. This has been neglected for far too long.
There are a number of points that I am pleased to return to. There will certainly be more interpellation debates and other debates here in the chamber. This is, in fact, one of the government's most important issues.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.